Two articles on fasting in today’s LA Times, and both are very good in large part. Running on empty: the pros and cons of fasting “There is something kind of magical about starvation,” says Dr. Marc Hellerstein, a professor of endocrinology, metabolism and nutrition at UC Berkeley, who studies fasting. Adds Mark P. Mattson, chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging: “In normal health subjects, moderate fasting — maybe one day a week or cutting back on calories a couple of days a week — will have health benefits for most anybody.” Mattson is among the leading researchers on the effects of calorie restriction and the brain. […] “We’ve been finding that putting an animal on a reduced-calorie diet for a couple of weeks dramatically slows cell proliferation rates,” Hellerstein says. “This is the case in pretty much every tissue you look at: prostate, skin, colon, liver, lymphocytes.” Intermittent fasting and calorie restriction have also been shown in animals to reduce cognitive decline in diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, Mattson says. […] Among 448 people surveyed, intermittent fasting was associated with more than a 40% reduction in heart disease risk. Fasting was…
Archives for February 2009
Marisa’s Comment and Bratty Kids
This comment came through on an older post from November on evolutionary nutrition. Let me quote Marisa. Hi! I stumbled upon this “paleo” eating quite by accident. I have a gluten/casein allergy that has wreaked havoc on my health, and has induced autistic symptoms in one of my children. Since removing it from our diet, my eczema has abated, and my child’s ability to cross-pattern appeared for the first time, along with her toe-walking (symptom of neurological damage) being a thing of the past … except when we get wheat contamination, and then she walks around like a ballerina again. (along with the diarrhea, aggression, and general malaise) We experiemented with the whole GFCF (gluten-free/casein-free) world of other grains, but literally spent a fortune. In the hopes of reeling in the finances, I dropped all the “fun” foods, and stuck to non-allergenic foods that were readily available to us: grass-fed, organic beef, pork, chicken, vegetables, nuts, organic oils (EVOO, coconut and palm mostly), coconut milk, and some fruits (thank god for Whole Foods). Because of our leaky guts I shied away from legumes (mold). Well, there you have it: the paleo diet. As we progressed along this line, I was…
Dining Out
Here’s three things I ate while in San Francisco this weekend, just so you know you don’t have to go too far astray when dining out. Late lunch at The Daily Grill on Saturday. A salad with their own blue cheese dressing, seared ahi tuna, flash fried spinach (fantastic; have got to try to duplicate) and some pickled cucumbers. Then, a party at the home of friends in the Marina district that night. Our mutual friend and chef, Simon, catered, as he does every year. In addition to the unbelievable shrimp, scallops, foie gras, and other delectables that I didn’t get pictures of, I did manage to snap this of two pieces out of about five of rack of lamb I ate. To die for. It was the second time I had rack of lamb this week, the first being the night of my birthday. My wife and a friend went shopping, and they did all the work. Finally, breakfast at Cafe Mason on Sunday morning. Steak, eggs, garlic roasted tomato and excellent black coffee.